Subaru Legacy Grandwagon 1996 -- Head Gaskets

[pgropp]

Hi everyone. I'm having some issues with my Subaru, and a friend recommended I try this forum.

Basically, a week ago the radiator blew in BK drive thru. We've since replaced the radiator as well as a transmission hose that had perished.

However, the car is now overheating after about five minutes of driving. The radiator reservoir smells like fuel, the oil is fine, and the thermostat is working properly. The radiator reservoir is also filling up.

We've been informed by a mechanic friend and my old man that it's likely a cracked head or blown head gasket. However, gasket kits and bolts were looking at about $800 at Repco.

Money is the big issue for me, the car is nothing special, I just use it to get to work and back, and I've already spent over $300 fixing the other stuff this week. Not ideal straight after Christmas and a week in Aus.

So my questions are:

1) How do I diagnose for sure whether it's a cracked head or blown gasket?

2) What's the best way to go about fixing either of these?

3) Where can I get reasonably priced parts? If they're second hand, how can I ensure they don't have the same issue?

4) How much is it likely to cost all up?

The car specs are:

Subaru Legacy Grandwagon

1996

2.5L Automatic

Paid $2500 three years ago.

Thank you for your help.

[Kiwi_Fozze]

Hey you, glad you chucked a post up, welcome to the nuthouse :-)

Another option would potentially be to just drop in a new engine, its probably cheaper than doing the headgaskets

[Jambun]

1) You usually would have milky traces on the oil dipstick. Sure the radiator was burped properly? Jack it up and let it run while continually topping up fluids.

2) Cracked head? Engine out, replace head. Headgasket? Engine out, replace all gaskets and clutch if its old (peace of mind)

3) Where are you located? Best bet is to go to a Subaru specialist and ask. You would be looking at a minimum of $1500 for a headgasket. Don't use a second hand headgasket.

4) As above, headgasket minimum of $1500 but you want to keep it longterm and the cambelt/water pump/clutch etc hasn't been done in a good while you'd be looking more towards 3k. Replacement engine would be easy but then no guarantees on it.

[Joker]

gidday yea guessed it was a 2.5 even before you mentioned it

good intro & well written informative post

sadly I'd reccomend new car over fixing it, OR seeing as you have started with a new rad the feeling might be to get it sorted (hard to give up once you start

not sure why you replaced the rad tbh tho?

[Kiwi_Fozze]

It blew the rad to bits ;-)

[pgropp]

@kwi_fozze: Yeah, I was told a new engine might be the way to go. Not too sure how much that would cost or where to get one from though.

@jambun: Yeah, the radiator was definitely burped properly, we spent the whole morning doing that yesterday. I'm in Christchurch, but wouldn't a Subaru specialist be expensive? Like I'm after crazy cheap, I really don't have the money for the $800 at Repco, let alone $1500 at a Suby specialist.

@joker: Yeah, as kwi_fozze said, the radiator blew (it was the plastic end cap, so just got a whole new radiator).

Basically I'm in the situation of a) I need to spend a minimum amount, and b) if it's gonna cost upwards of $800, I might as well borrow some money and buy a newer car, and sell this for parts/scrap.

[Jambun]

Only reason I said Subaru special is because they would most likely find it easier than your average joe blogs mechanic who doesn't work on Subarus too often which could incur more labour.

[batman420]

go to pick a part and see if there is a replacement engine for what you need, 300 bucks for a 4cyl fuel injected engine.

obviously you would need to remove it, easy enough they have a crane you can use.

they wont have much info on each vehicle it would be up to you to figure out exactly what you need.

i recently got one from there for my car, the donor car had a frontal impact so i figured it was quite possibly running at the time of the accident.

whipped the engine out and dropped the sump to check if there was any bearing material, nope put it back on and wheeled the engine out to my trailer.

resealed sump when i was home put it in car crossed my fingers soo hard they almost broke. now i have a running car on the el-cheapo.